Assistant Secretary-General and Representatives of the United Nations and its Specialised Agencies
Colleagues and Representatives of CARICOM
Associated Institutions
Members of the Media
I extend a warm welcome to our visiting delegations both from CARICOM Regional institutions as well as from the United Nations and its Specialised Agencies, to the Headquarters of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). This is the fourth meeting between the United Nations system and the Caribbean Community Secretariat and institutions associated with the Community and the first to be held at the headquarters of the Caribbean Community. We hope that the working environment which you will enjoy here will serve to advance our discourse and attention to our common aim – sustainable development for the well-being of the people of this Region.
We last met three years ago. We gather today by virtue of Resolution 59/138 entitled: “Cooperation between the United Nations and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)” adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2004 during its 59th Session and which recommended:
“… that the fourth general meeting between representatives of the Caribbean Community and its associated institutions and of the United Nations System be held … in order to review and appraise progress in the implementation of the agreed areas and issues and to hold consultations on such additional measures and procedures as may be required to facilitate and strengthen cooperation between the two organizations“
To us, colleagues, is entrusted the task and responsibility of developing a work plan that will facilitate our cooperation.
Despite the classification of many Caribbean states as middle income developing countries, the reality is that the gains that the countries of the Region from time to time celebrate are tenuous. They are constantly threatened by the erosion of multilateral diplomacy — a global principle dear to democratic states and critical to small states like ours; by the widening of economic — and by extension social — disparities through, inter alia, the erosion of preferential trade arrangements. The sustainable development of the Caribbean Community is menaced by the construction of global economic structures which, in the name of trade liberalisation promote free but, some argue, unfair trade, and by galloping technological progress that leaves them behind.
We are threatened by insecurity – be it HIV/AIDS, or the traffic in illicit arms, or terrorism; by environmental degradation, and ultimately by social dislocation and unrest. Notwithstanding the internationally lauded results of the PANCAP, the HIV/AIDS virus continues to affect the most productive of our citizens. The Caribbean still has a high rate of infection, which, in combination with other risk factors, contributes to the undermining of our gains in the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Added to this is the alarmingly increasing significance of the impact of non-communicable diseases on our most experienced and productive age group, the 35-55 age cohort.
The truth is that our small size – absolute and relative – forces us to play dangerous games with our very existence. We play David to the Goliath of globalisation and dodge the bullets fired by the vicissitudes of nature. Most recently Grenada’s catastrophic encounter with Hurricane Ivan and Haiti’s repeated incidents of devastating floods are only two recent reminders of how easily we can lose. Nevertheless, we move forward, encouraged by the hope that lives in a potential we have seen assert itself convincingly every now and then, in the resilience of the Grenadian and Haitian people, in the PANCAP successes, in the inauguration of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
CARICOM’s daunting task is, through its own efforts and global partnerships like those enjoyed with the UN, to counter the threats and access the promises of the evolving global reality on behalf of the Caribbean people. CARICOM is doing so through ambitious integration architecture – the Single Market and Economy (CSME) – and the UN continues to faithfully accompany the Community as it strengthens itself to face the treacherous currents of the global sea change that is globalisation. Thus Member States continue to distil their disparate voices into the single voice of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR), leveraging the collective influence of the Region to promote the interests of its small state membership in hemispheric, regional and international fora and to proclaim the Region’s fierce advocacy of multilateralism as the key to the maintenance of an equitable world society.
The Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) implements the enabling framework for optimum production and trade within the Region so that, as a unit, the Caribbean can present itself as a viable trading partner and investment location for world players. This Council also represents the interests of the Region on such diverse issues as protection of the Caribbean Sea or of the global environment.
The Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) addresses the health, education, youth, gender, sport, labour and community development issues and objectives of the Region, as well as the cultural development and social interaction of the Caribbean people. This Council is currently in the process of developing relevant social indicators that will allow the Community to better track its progress and identify its lacunae as regards social development.
More recently, the newly created CARICOM Council of Ministers responsible for National Security and Law and Enforcement, through its implementation arm, the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), is breathing life and efficiency into the CARICOM Regional Action Agenda on Crime and Security as mandated by a Conference of Heads of Government, concerned with the escalation of violence and security threats.
Our Regional agencies represented here today in the presence of CARDI, CARICAD, CCCCC, CCL, CDERA, CEHI, CFNI, CIMH, CMO CRFM, CTU, UWI and UG, were established by the Community to support the development of new policies in their respective areas of expertise as well as to provide technical support to governments in the implementation of policies adopted. These agencies are an integral arm of regional development.
Perhaps at no other time in history has the interrelation and interdependency of development issues been as pronounced as now. As a result, in no other time in the Region’s history has the Community’s approach to integration been so decidedly interdisciplinary. Poverty Reduction, food security, agriculture, environment, gender, security and governance issues – both internally and externally such as in the IFIs and UN – are now systematically treated as crosscutting themes as opposed to development objectives in themselves. The CSME construct and modus operandi reflects this paradigm shift in implementing integration policy. In this approach, the Community’s organs, institutions and associate institutions are called upon to work in ever more intimate, flexible and creative synergies.
Allow me briefly to expand on the CSME and its objectives. The CARICOM Single Market and Economy is intended to create a single enlarged economic space characterised by free movement of all the factors of production, a common external trade policy and coordination of macro-economic and sectoral policy coordination, but also enhanced functional cooperation and foreign policy coordination. In other words, the CSME seeks to rally the Community’s peoples in and across every sphere of activity to collectively edify the Community socially, culturally, economically, politically, legally and institutionally, so that, as a single regional unit, the Community can stand strong before the international community and adapt effectively to the ever changing international environment.
The legal underpinning of the CSME is the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, which is augmented by various decisions of the Conference of Heads of Government. To this end, the Community is in the advanced stages of establishing the legal and institutional framework which requires that new harmonised laws be blended into the domestic law of signatory Member States. With the establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), significant progress has been made with respect to the dispute settlement regime. However, while the Court is to pronounce on interpretation of the Treaty there is still need for the establishment of an adequate dispute resolution mechanism that could swiftly dispense of trade disputes and therefore facilitate the flow of goods and services in the single market in the fastest possible time.
As regards other institutional arrangements to facilitate the harmonisation process, a number of key regional structures have to be established. These include the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), to be followed by the Competition Commission, and the Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA). I should point out also that the focus has not only been on creating internal structures in the CSME. As far as market access for the Region’s exports is concerned, the Caribbean Regional Negotiation Machinery (CRNM) has been established to defend the issues of concern and advance the Region’s trade interests in external trade negotiations.
Ladies and gentlemen, on the first of this month, the Single Market celebrated its first birthday, having come into effect on 1 January 2006, and is now in operation among 12 Member States. Haiti, The Bahamas and Montserrat are not yet signatories to the CSME but they are still part of the CARICOM family, and it is hoped that in due course they will be part of this integrated market.
The CARICOM Single Market essentially creates a single contiguous market for CARICOM goods and services. It is a space characterised by non-discrimination between Member State goods, services, service providers and purchasers – no quotas, no duties, no discrimination against non-national job seekers in eligible professions – and by a single policy concerning the purchase of goods and services from third countries as symbolised in the first instance by a Common External Tariff (CET).
The novelty of the Single Market, as opposed to its predecessor the Common Market, is the new freedom of circulation. It guarantees services and the factors of production that constitute service provision, notably labour. Thus, whereas free movement of goods and the CET existed under the Common Market, free movement of labour and non-discrimination based on nationality amongst approved categories of professionals are ensured under the Single Market.
Concomitant with this right are the rights of establishment and contingent rights of the newly mobile CARICOM labour force. Laws ensuring the right of establishment for CARICOM nationals are currently being enacted into local legislation by some Member States and the contingent rights for authorised categories of professionals are currently being implemented.
As regards implementation of the Single Economy, its policy framework is expected to be completed by 2008.
Work is actively being undertaken in two main areas identified in the Revised Treaty: in the first instance, the creation of a Macroeconomic Policy framework involving work on monetary policy coordination, financial policy harmonisation, capital market integration, investment and incentives policy harmonisation; and in the second instance the coordination of sectoral policies, including agriculture, fisheries, sustainable development, environment and more recently energy.
All CARICOM Member States are small and extremely vulnerable. All need assistance at the country and sector levels in implementing the requirements of the Revised Treaty. It is expected that the adjustment process will be cushioned by the creation of the CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) and the Regional Development Agency (RDA) as well as with the continued support of the United Nations and the Region’s other development partners.
As regards the CDF, the Conference of Heads of Government recently agreed that the Fund would have an initial capital base of USD 250 million and would be established by Charter by July 2007. The RDA, which is expected to become operational later this year, will be tasked with monitoring and facilitating the full functioning of article 142 of the Revised Treaty which speaks to assistance to be provided to ‘disadvantaged countries, regions and sectors’ to allow them to become ‘economically viable and competitive by appropriate interventions of a transitional or temporary nature’.
I have sought to put into perspective and to demonstrate the importance of the deliberations which will commence this morning. As I said earlier, the UN System, through the provision both of finances and expertise, has been supportive of CARICOM’s efforts to implement the CSME and thereby respond to the global environment. I must make special mention of the UN’s ongoing assistance to our sister state Haiti, particularly through MINUSTAH, as she strives to take up her place in the Community and the world, and to Grenada when that state suffered the devastation of Hurricane Ivan.
Our agenda will include the strategic objectives of the Region in order to facilitate an even more responsive programme of cooperation for the next two years. In this respect, this meeting will discuss, inter alia, Implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Development of the Framework for the Single Economy; Institutional Development and Strengthening of the Community; Advancing Human and Social Development; Enhancing the Strategic Position of CARICOM within the Hemispheric and Global Environment; Strengthening Governance and Security within the Community; Information and Communication Technology for Development; and, of course, Resource Mobilisation.
All of the activities undertaken thus far and planned by the Community in collaboration with the UN and other international partners are of course consistent with the Community’s efforts to meet international goals and standards most recently captured by the MDGs and most enduringly enshrined in the UN Charter. At the end of the day however, through these meetings and others, CARICOM seeks simply to improve the standards of living and quality of life of its people.
In conclusion and on behalf of the Region and Caribbean Community representatives, I wish to thank the UN and its specialised agencies for attending this important meeting.
